villain

Something said to be the cause of particular trouble or an evil: poverty, the villain in the increase of crime.

Obsolete A peasant regarded as vile and brutish.

Origin of villain

Middle English vileinfeudal serf, person of coarse feelingsfrom Old French from Vulgar Latin vīllānusfeudal serffrom Latin vīllacountry house ; see weik-1 in Indo-European roots.

villain

Noun

(plural villains)

Origin

Probably Middle English villein, from Old French villain (modern: vilain), in turn from Late Latin villanus, meaning serf or peasant, someone who is bound to the soil of a Latinvilla, which is to say, worked on the equivalent of a plantation in late Antiquity, in Italy or Gaul.

Sentence Examples

After all, we were after a villain who had multiple killings to his credit.

Its hero Nial, type of the good lawyer, is contrasted with its villain Mord, the ensample of cunning, chicane, and legal wrong doing; and a great part of the saga is taken up with the three cases and suits of the divorce, the death of Hoskuld and the burning of Nial, which are given with great minuteness.